AAP Bhi Aadmi Ho

Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as the 7^th Chief Minister of Delhi about 15 days ago. It was a big day in the politics and democracy of India. I wasn’t really happy about the Aam Aadmi Party taking Congress support to form the government in Delhi. The day when the news broke that AAP will form the government in Delhi  with Congress aid, I made a sad facebook post. Here’s the pic:

Yeah, call me a sadist, and heres a comment by one of my high school teachers

And another friend of mine said:

Ofcouse I only had this to say:

And then the status died away.. and 5 days later Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as the CM and he made quite a decent speech that day. 

I made a status:

I realized that I was missing something and this congress alliance may not prove that damaging and AAP would still be able to play a dominating role and provide the people of Delhi some good governance.

The days that followed saw a lot of changes and decisions like the transfer of DJB higher management, 700 liters of free water per day and maybe a few more that I don’t remember. But all the while and media, other political parties and sympathizers and supporters of the NaMo Movement started posting pictures, excerpts and quotes of how Kejriwal and the AAP were switching sides, changing tunes etc etc.. the 3 biggest things that the people have found hardest to forget and forgive are:

1.       Kejriwal won’t fight an election – He contested and became CM

2.       Kejriwal won’t take VIP security or government facilities (car, house etc) – Well he did that

And the worst

3.       Kejriwal swore on his children that there would be no support taken from BJP or Congress – Well, we all know what happened.

Now, ofcourse I’m writing this post to well somewhat justify his statements, now these three have not risen from different sources. The one reason is, he’s green, that’s it.

Being a.. well talkative person I know that sometimes you go overboard, get carried away and say something of paramount proportion when you don’t know the complete picture. Haven’t we all seen people who are ‘confidently wrong’? That’s what happened here, it’s practically impossible to have a CM walking the streets without security. I’m not talking about the CM, the people would swarm the place and hurt one another.. its so with any celebrity and he or any celebrity has no control over it.. so this was an innocent ‘confidently wrong’ statement. How can he say something and we take his word for something that isn’t in his control?

Speaking of the swearing on children part, the same goes here, he was ‘confidently wrong’ because of his innocence, as I said, he’s still a little green, now what do we do of an innocent first timer? Do we show some consideration or we scrutinize and criticize his every move? Expect him to be perfect from day 1? That’s just too much expectation from us, the media and other politicians. Given time, maybe he’ll learn his limitations and learn that every word is counted.

To be a little neutral here, I really am concerned about the ‘370 pages of evidence against Shiela Dixit’ statement. Ofcouse, thinking realistically, there’s no such thing as ‘unconditional’ support. Lets leave it as that.

Finally, why did he enter politics, contest and become CM? well, We must think of why AAP was formed in the first place, there was no option left, right? No Lok Pal Bill would be passed with all the Anshans and people were simple getting bored and eventually fizz out. 

This was a right decision, but sadly, we have a perception that nothing can be changed or that people who get down in the pit to clean also end up smelling like shit.. or people have no hopes of ever having a clean political system. Maybe.. but the one line I remember from The Shawshank Redumption is “No one can ever take away hope” So I’m gonna hope, hope that change is possible, change will happen and I will do my part. (by making blogs and fb posts? Sure why not)

AlphaBetting

A strange word or rather a coalition of words caught my eye in The Hindu this week. Someone, I don’t remember the author or the article, but it was about a statement by someone regarding a minimum qualification for journalists. People, well journalists in particular were not so pleased by that.  The word that caught my eye was Academic Inflation. It does raise one’s brow doesn’t it? I have this bad habit of observing words, vocab if you want to call it. I like to observe and think and rethink about meanings and reasons for use of certain vocab. I think I was 16 years old when my sister took me as a ‘subject’ for her psychology practical exam. I was given a test and in the end she announced that I had poor verbal abilities.

Ouch!

Years later, the CAT 2012 proved her right. 

OK so my vocab sucks, maybe that’s why I’m interested in looking more closely at words and that’s how this caught me. Academic Inflation. It really is something, and it’s happening all around. How many times have you heard your peers saying “one degree just isn’t enough anymore”? My sister herself took up masters because she thought just having a bachelor’s degree was worthless. (I’m not sure how much she loved the subject, lemme not get on her bad side over a blogpost)  My dad had also told me that I really need to pursue a master’s course. He too thinks one degree isn’t enough. Forget these people, I can point a finger at anyone in a crowd and say he has atleast 1 friend, if not himself, in the US studying MS. It’s the trend. Two degrees is mandatory. 

My nephew was being admitted to a school and the enrolment application form said that both parents need to have a master’s degree. Seriously?? OK parents being graduates is common these days, but PG?? Come on!! So the value for education is decreasing. Today your kid can get a school admission if you’re a graduate, tomorrow you need to be a PG and then a PHD??

In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Or a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money right? So Academic Inflation would mean the reduction in credibility providing power per unit of education? Or something like that.

We’ve heard most people saying that they go for a master’s degree to add more value to themselves, but a degree is not a certificate of competence, is it? So what does that mean? The people who do masters are actually people who are incompetent to survive with just a graduation degree? Then doesn’t that make them less intelligent? 

With increasing popularity of Steve jobs and the kind; on the one side we have a propaganda about studies or structured education not being a necessity, and on the other we have people scrambling and swarming exam halls and classrooms because they want to be more credible. All these mean, the higher your educational qualification, the lower is your competence? 

 

So if we take a clean sheet approach where each person is stripped of their qualification or background, and graded based on their ability to think, work and other performance measurement criteria, then where would each one stand? Nooo we don’t want to do that… Cuz its just easy to throw around my weight cuz I have a fancy MS or a Phd.. but wait... So does everyone else in my country!! I’m gonna buy more degrees! Another Phd perhaps??

Hermit at the office

An interesting thought crossed my mind when the speakers started talking about their ‘past experience’ in the orientation program at my college. ( well yeah I’m back in the class room.. so you can expect more posts from me.. or lets see) they all said, I have 15 years experience in corporate world, I’ve learnt things for 30 years in a Bank or I have 6, 10, 12 years experience in the teaching profession . I said OK.

After a while it just occurred, if I do a BA in 5 years or an MBBS in 8 years or an MBA in 4 years, does that mean I know better than my friends who passed out in 2 years? No right? It means I was a poor student and I have less to credit myself. Here, more is less. But while speaking of work experience, more is more. Does it really have to be that way?

Why can I not learn how things done in 2 years? Or say 3 or 5 max… why do I have to do the same job for 10, 15 or 30 years to know all about it? Does that mean whatever I am doing each day is so less that I need to spend a long time to learn what I actually call my job? On the one side we are sacrificing so much in the name of work and then we realize that we have done and learnt so little then where’s the point of taking up such a job? Or living such a life??

If you are interested in collecting a vast experience base spanning over years then you’re aim is not to be the owner or leader of your business, it is simply to be the hermit, a hermit who has seen a lot of success over time and has learnt a lot, but only to end up as an old hermit with stories of his glorious past.  

Well, my regular readers might be thinking why the sudden change in attitude… well I just feel that if you are training me to run in a rat race, then stop feeding me tales of the hermitage on the hill and teach me how to run faster! Thank you very much!

Nine Over Mine

The breezy Wednesday morning had more to offer than just blowing air and ice cold water in the tap. The first smiles of the morning were delivered when I saw my nine year old cousin’s name in my inbox. There was a mail from my aunt, who wished to share her son’s first article in the papers with me. 

My cousin Sanath is a 9 year old school going child who likes playing Cricket and is a huge fan of Rajini Kanth. He loves Tamil movies and songs, and off late has found a liking for the Kannada movies of Puneet Raj Kumar. 

Being born in a family of teachers and administrators, Sanath is insistent on solving problems.

HOW I COPE

I worry that my teacher will shout at me if I do not take the books correctly. Therefore, I have made it a habit to check twice that I have kept the books correctly as per the time table.

When I get very angry or irritated, I follow my grandmother’s advice to drink two glasses of water. I also try to figure out if I am hungry and if this is true, I eat something. Many times, I feel my anger goes away along with my hunger.

Sometimes, I feel stressed before the final exams and at such times, I pray and this helps me to calm down. 

Whenever anything happens that makes me feel very bad, I talk to someone – my mother, father or grandmothers, about it depending on who is there at that time. Also, I try to keep in mind what my mother always tells me when I get upset about something: “For everything, there is always a solution. All you have to do is remember this and think calmly.”

~ Sanath

The write talks about coping with problems from a 9 year old’s point of view, but it makes sense to all. The point Sanath makes in his write is to seek help.

If only our pride grew shorter with age…

Why grow up??

Good memory you have ya, I hardly remember anything I did as a kid.

Was kind of a late reply.

Mine was a little quicker; I said

The trick is to never grow up. That way you don’t have to remember the things you did as a kid cuz you’d still be doing or atleast thinking the same things.

I thought more after she said:

Ah! How I wish to be a kid again.

Children’s day is not far; remember to let yourself loose this children’s day… Right now I gotta get some sleep... so bye good night! 

Little did I know then that I would be thinking about this chat while at bed playing catch till sleep was offered. It wasn’t long before I realized that I had just said something that I had never really believed. Suddenly I had told someone that I didn’t like growing up. Shocking. I really wanted to be a grown up. I was always treated like a kid. Something less than grown up - insignificant. I don’t know if it was my goofy way of talking and staying funny in an immature way or just my appearance, but I was always looked upon as an insignificant kid. I was always irritated when people called me or said that they thought of me as a kid, especially girls! Huh! Wait till I take my pants off, you won’t call me a kid then! 

Thinking about the insignificance of kids, it reminded me of an episode of Two and a Half Men; where Charley tells Jake “you’re a kid, it doesn’t matter what you think”

Well, I did laugh at it.

Staying over the thought of television I remembered a popular Hindi movie where Ranbir Kapoor gets yelled at for being too immature by a girl who later becomes his lover. Ranbir doesn’t retaliate in denial. He comes out and yells back at her admitting that he is a kid, and if trying to prove yourself right  or worrying about future is all that grownups do then he never wants to grow up. 

I appreciated that scene, but always thought responsibility made me happy.

Another such episode was from DraganBallGT. A scene where Goku, Pan and Trunks were looking for a DragonBall under water. Guku just takes off all his cloths and jumps into the pond. Pan gets grossed up looking at her nude grandpa. She yells at him and tells him that he is an adult and should behave like one. To which, Goku says:

If being an adult means swimming with your clothes on, then I never wanna grow up.

It’s just marvelous how almost nothing bothers a kid. Children surely are the little lamps that spread joy and love everywhere they go. An old story that’s still shared among people of Vasantapura is the story of Raaghu Bhattar and Shiva Swamy of Vasantapura. Shiva swamy and Raaghu Bhattar were big men of the village, one a devout shiva worshiper and the other a strict vishnavaite. They never saw each other and never entered each other’s temples. They were the modern day version of vasista and vishwamitra.

It was the days of the yearly village fest in vasantapura. The whole village was on the streets and there were just as many visitors from other villages; some were city dwellers from the nearby Bangalore. The scene was just lovely. Bouquets of Music and Dance performances in the village’s center square, vendors of a hundred kind occupying every inch of the road and women wearing cloths of every imaginable color, all saree clad; each like a traditional Indian woman.

 Raaghu Bhattar and Shiva swamy were very busy, talking, meeting, smiling and bowing at every visitor. They had to keep their contacts with the rich devotees. Though they were both happy and occasionally spoke to the same person, they never once looked at each other.

 It was after the dust had settled and evening prayers offered that everyone took to the center square again. A kid tugged on shiva swamy’s dhoti. He was crying. A three year old lost kid was lifted on to the shoulders by Shiva swamy who went about the square trying to make the kid from crying. He knew very well the kid was Raaghu Bhattar’s grandson. Yet he held the kid in his arms and walked over half the village. 

 To this day, the dwellers of Vasantapura speak of this tale of how an insignificant three year old melted the heart of a high priest who detested the other pillar of the village. 

Maybe that’s why being a kid is so nice. Being insignificant and not bothered by it, not bothered by position and status, and the least bothered about what others think of us.  Maybe it is the urge of proving our significance that makes us old; the conscious struggle to make a place for ourselves makes us lose the meaning of belonging.

 People generally see the dawning of responsibility or being able to take decisions or simple earning and feeding as coming of age. But is it really worth it? Is money and pride really worth the innocence and carefree childhood? 

Everyone grows up into an adult at some time. But that doesn’t mean the child in you has to die.

After all, Child is Father of Man.